Manufacture for wrought-iron.



tl'hl' WfaTEdlRMtEht warren JAMES ASTON, 013 PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOIt TO A. M. BYERS COMPANY,

7 01B PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA.

MANUFACTURE or wnousnr-tnon.

lilo Drawing.

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that I, JAMns Asron, of Pittsburgh, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new anduseful Tmprovemnt in the Manufacture of Wrought-Iron, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

Heretofore the usual method employed in blooms, billets, or muck bars of wroughtiron. The chief objections to this process 7 are that skilled labor is required, the operation is slow and tedious, and only a small quantity of wrought-iron can be produced at each heat. The purpose of my invention therefore is to dispense with the skilled labor required in the puddling process, and to lessen the time ordinarily required in the production of wrought-iron; and it consists in mechanically mixing disintegrated iron with a silicate or other suitable slag, raising the iron and slag to a welding heat, and then squeezing and rolling the same into billets and bars. This may be accomplished by placing fagots or bundles of thin iron rods, or shavings and chips of iron, in a bath of molten iron silicate slag in a suitable furnace, and allowing the iron to remain in the molten slag until it has attained a welding heat, and then removing the fagot or bundle of iron with the adhering slag and squeezing and rolling the same 1n the manner com- 7 monly employed with puddled balls in the paddling process.

I will now describe my invention more fully, that others skilled in the art to which it appertains may employ the same.

Highly refined iron, produced by the Bessemer or open hearth process, is disinte- Speciflcation of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 5, Ttllfi.

Application filed August 18, 1917. Serial No. 186,830.

grated by any suitable milling operation that produces chips or shavings, and these chips or shavings are formed into a bundle and placed in a molten bath of silicate slag in an open hearth or other suitable furnace, where the iron is allowed to remain until it has attained a Welding heat. The bundle of iron with the adhering slag is then removed from the furnace and taken to the squeezer where it is formed into blooms in the usualmanner. Instead of forming the chips and shavings into bundles, they may be placed in the slag loosely, and after the iron has come to a welding heat it can be formed into a ball in the slag by means of a dam shovel or other suitable tool. Or, instead of chips and shavings of iron, fagots may be formed of iron rods into the interstices of which the slag will flow. Or, under certain conditions, the cold slag and the disintegrated iron may be placed on the hearth of the furnace together, as the heat required to bring the slag to a molten state will at the same time bring the iron to a welding heat or other forms of disintegrated iron may be employed. Although I have described heating the iron in the bath of molten slag, I do not desire to limit myself thereto as the iron may be brought to welding heat before it is mingled with the slag. Nor do I desire to limit myself to a silicate slag as in certain cases other forms of slag may be desirable.

The advantages of my invention are that the refining of the iron, which may be accomplished. in large quantities by the Bessemer oropen hearth. processes, is separate from the operation which incorporates the silicate with the iron; and larger quantities of iron may be treated by my process in an open hearth furnace at one heat than can be paddled. The result of this is a great savin in time and labor.

T-Iaving thus described my invention, what i 2.. The method of producing Wrought iron squeezing and Working the metal at a weldconsisting in heating disintegrated refined ing heat to a product. iron When. mingled With slag to a Welding I In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set rheat and then squeezing and rolling the my hand.

Same. w *r v 3. The method of producingwrought iron JAMBJS AS101\' consisting inv mingling disintegrated. iron Witnesses:

and molten slag, the point of fusion of which B. TRo'rH,

is lower than that of the iron and then JAMES K. BAKEWELL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five c ents.each,, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

' Washington, D; 0. 

